Monday, August 25, 2008

Sorry that there isn't more detail on the days that I've added. I still have a ton of detail that I need to add to my blog from earlier, too. It's tough when you only get to a computer once every two weeks or so, and then you only get 1 hour per day at most public libraries. And the worst part is I can't add any of my photos here. The photos from the last week or so have been great and I'm really looking forward to sharing them.

Highway 242 to Highway 20. 17 miles of slack-packing!, 2006 miles total.

I reached the 2,000 mile mark today!

This is a shot of Mt. Washington.

Wombat and I left our backpacks at the Sisters Motor Inn and hiked 17 miles in 4 hours! What a pace, but it was sure nice. A trail angel came and picked us up because the cars were just zooming past at the top of Santiam Pass on Highway 20.

Stopped at Shelter Cove Resort today to pick up a box and purchase some more food and supplies. Could have easily stayed here over night, but needed to get in a few more miles.

Finally, at about 3:00 pm, I got back on the trail, hiking about 6 miles to the hut. I didn't even know about the hut until I was on the other side of Highway 58 and decided to look ahead in the Yogi Guide. I didn't know if I could there before dark, or if I could even find it, but when I did get there, I was the only one there! It was a great place to spend the night!

This shot is a little fuzzy, but I wanted to include it anyway. The moon was only visible for about 2 minutes before it tucked behind the clouds. It was a great big orange ball from all the smoke. There wasn't a lot of light, hince the fuzzy photo.

Wow! Wild Huckle Berries! They are so sweet, and there are millions of them all along the edge of the trail! It's a wonder that made any distance today with all these berries to eat! These are a lot like Blue Berries, except that with Huckle Berries, they grow one berry to a stem while Blue Berries usually have several berries on the same stem or cluster.

There was a nice shelter here at Brown Mountain, and there were several hikers there cooking dinner. One of the entries in the journal stated that a bear likes to hang hout here, so after dinner, even though it was getting dark, I decided to hike on a mile or two, and I ended up camping just along the trail. I didn't see or hear any bears.

The wild huckleberries near the shelter were everywhere and very ripe! What a treat to have berries right along the trail!

It's fairly dry here in Southern Oregon. Finding water is not always an easy task. It reminds me of the desert of Southern California in many ways. I ate an early dinner, but when I got to Hyatt Lake Resort and heard that they had a nice Pizza Restaurant, I decided to eat a second dinner! While I was there, Phillip came by to order a pizza. I had not seen him since we last met in Independence, California. We had a nice visit while he waited for his order. Later, I decided to camp near them in the campground about a mile away.

After I ate my pizza, I ordered some Ice Cream! It's so nice to have restaurants along the trail!

Back on the trail today! I decided to hike on from Ashland, after my knee started feeling better and my spirits were raised a bit! I can always come back to ashland in mid-October and finish the part that I missed. I've been told that the snow is usually late in this part of the mountains, and there's always next year!

I stopped at the market to buy some food, and prepared a couple of boxes to mail ahead so I'll more food later. I also downloaded all of my photos to CD's at the Alberton's Market and mailed them home. It's great to have lots of available memory for taking more photos!

The local RVTD city bus doesn't run on Saturdays, so I had to hitch-hike to the market because it was too far to walk! I did the math again, and if I can do 18 miles per day from here, I'll get to Canada by October 1st. That's a lot better that 21 miles per day.

I stopped at the ARCO gas station right by Interstate 5, and a very nice woman was heading South, so she gave me a ride to the Mt. Ashland exit, right near where the trail resumes. For most of the afternoon, though, it seemed like I was headed South rather than North. At times, I wondered if I had made a wrong turn on the trail, but soon, it curved around and headed North again, so I knew I was going the right way.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

What a wonderful, relaxing, restful day I had! First, I went for a very nice breakfast. This town has a lot of very nice restaurants to pick from! Next, I headed for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival ticket office, and was very lucky to obtain tickets for two plays: at 2:00 p.m. I saw "A view from the Bridge" in the Bowman Theatre, and at 8:30 p.m., I saw "Othello" in the Elizebathian Theatre. Both of these shows were excellent! I was also able to include a back stage tour earlier in the morning, and a free concert right before the evening play. I was a very good day, indeed.

My left knee is feeling much better today, and I'm ready to get back on the trail. Rather than going back to Dunsmuir, I'll stay here in Ashland and skip ahead about 200 trail miles, with the plan to come back to Ashland in October after I've reached the Canadian border to complete the part that I'm skipping. I've been told that the snow comes much later in the season here in this area, so I'm buying some time with this plan. It will also allow me to hiker shorter days and still complete the Washington and Oregon portion of the trail before the snow starts to fly in October.

I have a lot of things to due before I can get back on the trail here at Ashland: re-supply for the next part of the trail, send some food packages ahead for the parts of the trail that don't have decent stores near the trail, download my memory cards to CD's so I can take more pictures, and send my old backpack to Granite Gear. I'll do all that in the morning, and hope to be on my way to the trail head by noon or so.

If you every plan a trip to Ashland, Oregon, make sure you check out www.osfashland.org and plan to take in a play while you are here!